"You know how much I LOVE talking about new technology, right? Well, this is one that is going to blow your mind, make an excellent case for the Crystal Movement, and also mop the floor with “limited data storage” forever!
There’s a new kind of storage device which many tech companies have been diving into in secret for the past few years, which Hitachi recently came out with a technology they are developing which is essentially a sheet of Quartz Glass, which could potentially save data up to 300 Million Years!
If you didn’t know anything about storage devices that we currently have, but anything from records, CD’s, USB sticks, magnetic tape, none of these can even lay a finger on this new, very impressive technology.
“The prototype is made of a square of quartz two centimeters wide and two millimeters thick. It houses four layers of dots that are created with a femtosecond laser, which produces extremely short pulses of light. The dots represent information in binary form, a standard that should be comprehensible even in the distant future and can be read with a basic optical microscope. Because the layers are embedded, surface erosion would not affect them.” - From the Scientific American Journal
Now, while this is exciting, there’s more to it than just that. See, While Hitachi currently has an actual produceable thing which they will probably start marketing once they figure out a simple means of transferring data to say, computers and television, the basic model they have (see picture above) only has the data storage capacity slightly better than a CD.
But that’s not to say that this tech is doomed, simply that it’s young… and even then, some people are already working on a bigger and better thing!
Scientists in the University of Southhampton in the UK have been developing an even MORE incredible technology. It’s called “Superman” Crystals, and potentially has the storage capacity of up to 350 TB, and can last forever!
Superman graphic
Image Right: A graphic depicting a 5D optical storage writing setup: femtosecond laser, spatial light modulator (SLM), Fourier lens (FL), half-wave plates matrix (»/2 M), dichroic mirror, 1.2 NA water immersion objective, silica glass sample, translation stage. (Image: University of Southhampton)
“The scientists used a femtosecond laser, which emits pulses of light in femtoseconds (one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth of a second). The 5D read/write laser can record up to an estimated 360 TB/disc data capacity on nano-structured glass capable of thermal stability up to 1000°C — and a practically unlimited lifetime. The information encoding comes in five dimensions that include the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nano-structures.” - Computerworld
It seems Crystals still got some magic after all . And they don’t have to just be in your pocket, they might be the basis for all of our computers in the future. I mean, they are now, but perhaps even more so. :) -SS
The Crystal Skulls
You’ve all heard of the ancient crystal skulls and the stories that they supposedly contain a repository of knowledge.. Well, the scientists at hitachi may have just revived an ancient advanced technology. It has been said throughout history that the crystal skulls contain ancient knowledge possibly dating back to the time of Atlantis, or even further.
Information on a grand scale. The skulls are said to contain the answers to human evolution, universal information, planetary information, and most valuable of all, humankind’s destiny and true purpose. The legend claims that at a time of great need, the skulls will be discovered and reunited. The information they provide will save the human race. The legend forewarns, however, that mankind must be able to accept the knowledge morally and spiritually.
This data can seemingly exist forever, enduring extreme temperatures and hostile conditions without degrading… at least until the sun begins to die and expands to consume the earth, that is.
Hitachi researcher Kazuyoshi Torii said that quartz glass is highly stable and resilient material, used to make beakers and other instruments for laboratory use. Due to the medium, the chip is waterproof, resistant to many chemicals and unaffected by radio waves. Even more, it can be exposed directly to high temperature flames and heated to 1,832 Fahrenheit for at least two hours without being damaged.
“We believe data will survive unless this hard glass is broken,” said senior researcher Takao Watanabe.
Rather than storing precious information for mankind in an ordinary piece of quartz that could have been lost in time, the ancients chose to store their wisdom in a receptacle shaped like a human head. These would be used in many rituals and ceremonies, and passed down from generation to generation. In the same way that our human skull protects and holds the brain, a crystal skull is a mind-like container that holds a generational library of knowledge – from ancient history to a blueprint of possible futures.
Source
http://themindunleashed.org/2014/02/data-storage-crystal-quartz-will-change-everything.html
